Pros and cons of raw feeding

Ok so I know I'm new here, but you lot seem knowledgeable!

Asher is our 6..ish... year old goldie - he's currently fed on Dr John dry kibble and butcher's tinned food, he's a bit fussy, wouldn't eat any of the better quality foods. Kept him on that until now while he was settling in.

However he doesn't have that every night, he often has healthy scraps (mostly cooked) which he seems to do better on than tins and dry actually, after a few days on just meat and kibble he can be a but sloppy (not runny just not as firm as I'd like) poos, also a bit more gassy. But largely it'd be about his enjoyment.


Hope the title is about right for what I want to ask, I can work out amounts etc, I was thinking of the packs from landyfoods as a good basis, we can get raw bones from our butchers on demand really, he pretty much has them around to chew on constantly. And other bits as necessary, adjusted to suit.



Anyway to get more to the point and stop babbling for once - I'm already fairly convinced after months of reading on and off, however Dad isn't taken with the idea really. I think when I pointed out the price he listened more, not that he'd spare any cost simply he thought it'd be more expensive, when in fact it's much cheaper than tins for more, however 1 thing he's always been brought up to think is that the raw meat makes them more likely to get worms. Is there any basis to this?

Any other proven (not hearsay) benefits I can persuade him with? At times with some websites I'm not sure if I'm reading fact or sales stuff to be honest...


As opposed to BARF specifically I'd be looking at feeding raw meat and bones, organ meat etc but also still some table scraps, he gets some veggies and fruit now and then anyway, he's not fussy on food when you step outside of processed stuff funnily enough

Also quick question, comparing weights aside, say 1 tin (400g) of the processed stuff is right for a dog, would it be more/the same/less of raw meat? I'm just curious on that, as Asher is about the right weight or just above now and wouldn't want him to put on any or lose too much weight, currently even with his favourite foods he tends to be very good at gauging how much he wants/needs himself, would him doing this with raw food probably work ok for him?

Hopefully this will make some sense as to what I'm looking for, I've read other threads I just sometimes find by asking you find out extra useful tibits!

I can only go on my own experience like many i was not keen when i first started looking at raw i have listed below what i feed my spaniels who have an average weight of around 16kg across the 4 of them and as with dry food i adjust acoording to weight of each individual dog, it can be confusing and you do need to invest in a freezer or have a good local supplier but once you get in to it its easy, they have approx 1/2lb of chicken and veg mince in a morning, (i buy it mxed) which i will mix either a spoon of low fat natural yoghurt, cottage cheese or a raw egg shell and all. For their evening meal they get a variety of a whole chicken carcass,chicken wings, lamb ribs, pigs trotters, pheasant carcass in the season, rabbit from a pest control friend. Once a week they get fish such as pilchards and a bit of offal mixed in either heart or liver,, i buy the mince and carcasses from a local supplier who is based in barnsley the mince is 49p lb less than a tin of dog food and the carcasses are 2.50 a bag and there tends to be around 12 in a bag so three meals, the ribs, wings and trotters come from my local butcher and he charges me £4.50 for a dozen ribs (3 meals) 4 trotters (1 meal) and 4 trotters (1meal),the pheasants and rabbit are free and the last time nigel came he fetched me 13 rabbits, 1 rabbit feeds 2 dogs, i think i worked it out that it costs me around 2.50 a day for 4 dogs cheap really. We switched because we nearly lost Millie to AIHA and wanted to be as natural as possible because nobody knows what triggers it and processing in food could be one of the triggers. We have far less to pick up now and what there is, is always hard. We noticed a distinct change in behaviour after about a week in that they were a lot calmer. I do have a large chest freezer in the garage that i manged to pick up second hand for £30, for me its well worth the effort which once in a routine is minimal, i have to say they now have lovely clean teeth, nice coats and Molly who was always a fussy eater with kibble is the first in the kitchen, and i now wished i had done it years since.

Have you discussed it with your vet?
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/jan05/050115ww.asp

If you get human grade meat or frozen packs then worms are not a problem - so dont worry about that

Thanks Lizzy - Asher is about 40kg but doesn't eat much for his weight, probably because he's a lazy monkey and prefers lying down somewhere to walking, especially now it' rains on the poor softy Tinned food + kibble is probably £1 a day or so for feeding, so I think raw wouldn't be bad at all.


Not discussed it with my vet, but to be honest I can be.. sceptical of vets, especially since looking into being 1 myself, many on the student forum I'm on have said their nutrition training is done by the likes of pedigree, plus most sell a certain dried food... I trust them on medical issues, but for nutrition I read about people who have studied it, just like I'd not ask a nutrition expert how to train my dog Dogs can cope bacteria much better than humans can, that side doesn't worry me.

Good to know the worms won't be a problem, thanks

I changed my lot to raw about a year ago after a few problems with health and skin. They all look really well and am complimented by my vet (my vet backs me on raw feeding). I worm every three months.
My lot get a variety of chicken, lamb, beef mince. they also get green tripe, pheasant and rabbit carcases, liver, kidney and heart. So you can see it is much better as it is well varied and they don't get fed up with it. They all have clean teeth and don't have 'doggy breath'!! The cost is about £10 a week for four dogs three of which are large breeds, 1 GSD, 2 wolfdogs and a springer. DAF are good suppliers and Landywoods also deliver to most places. I am lucky as I have really good suppliers quite near.
The Britbarf group are really helpful.
When you get into it it is really easy and much more satisfaction than opening a tin!!!

yes and he's very suportive , and that article you keep trotting out is from 2005, maybe vets have changed their opinion since then, there obviously hasn't been the rise in Salmonella and ecoli infections that was predicted or we would have heard about it, or maybe its that both bacteria won't survive in acidic conditions which is a dogs stomach and that good personal and kitchen hygiene prevents us from picking it up

GOOD answer..you go girl!

Oh and Labman..is your vet a dog nutritionist?

For info the Ph in a dogs stomach is Between 1 and 2, Pathogenic bacteria, will not survive below PH 4.5 this is why pickling is such a good preservative

I feed my two on the prey model diet.
Starting points for this diet is to feed 2-3% of ideal adult weight. Of this roughly 80% is meat, 10% edible bone, 10%organs.

Join the yahoo "Rawfeeding" group, they have lots of info on there. I also recommend these links to raw newbies:

http://www.rawfeddogs.net/ (recipes section is good )
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/ (also perhaps get Tom's books, they are very useful.)

Start with one meat and stick to that for a week or two before introducing the next. This way you can pinpoint if anything is causing him upset.

Low/no bone meals or lots of organs will produce looser stools out the other end. Too much bone will produce chalky hard stools. The trick is to get the balance in between. Avoid weight bearing bones from cattle, these are much more dense than dogs teeth and could chip or break them. Also don't feed cooked bones, these are much more brittle and dangerous.

Hope that's of some help to you.